Overall Impression

Coding is Crazy


First time I see the HW


When my code works I’m on top of the world. When the code doesn’t its time to google. From this course I got the basics of how to run programs in R and do statistical analysis but more importantly it has taught me how to google my roadblocks. This class was a good first introduction to coding and will help me learn other coding languages faster.

What were you asked to do?

Please give me a bulleted/numbered list of each task you were asked to do for this course. Where relevant, please also link the html version of the file representing each task, in your own repos, to the bulleted entry for that task.

  1. HW 1 https://github.com/YYangEmily/AN588-Week-2-yangy22/blob/main/yangy22_FinalHomeworkCode_01.html
  2. HW 2 https://github.com/YYangEmily/AN588-Week-3-yangy22/blob/main/yangy22_FinalHomeworkCode_02.html
  3. HW 3 https://github.com/YYangEmily/AN588_Zombies_yangy22/blob/main/yangy22__FinalHomeworkCode_03.html
  4. HW 4 https://github.com/YYangEmily/AN588_Malfunction_yangy22/blob/main/yangy22_FinalHomeworkCode_04.html
  5. HW 5 https://github.com/YYangEmily/AN588_Boots_yangy22/blob/main/yangy22_FinalHomeworkCode_05.html
  6. Group Vignette https://github.com/erin1928/Statistical-Vignette/blob/main/Goodness-of-Fit-Tests.html
  7. Replication Assignment https://github.com/YYangEmily/yangy22-data-replication-assignment/blob/main/yangy22-data-replication-assignment.html
  8. Weekly modules are on my github. All student made modules are in the same repo. https://github.com/YYangEmily/Student_Modules
  9. Attend all classes and office hours as needed.

What did you accomplish?

Please let me know how many of the above tasks you accomplished. If any of them were accomplished later than stipulated, please note that. If you contacted me about them being late (and we discussed it and I said it was ok), please note that, too. You may provide a bulleted/numbered list matching the one above.


All tasks were accomplished and submitted before their Wednesday deadlines.

How well did you accomplish them?

Please let me know how well you feel you accomplished your tasks, in a general sense. What do you feel you did the best, and what did you do the least well? What was the hardest part for you? Did your work/understanding/ease improve over the course of the semester?

I spent roughly 8 hours on this class a week and I feel that I accomplished things well. My weakest homework was HW 4 Malfunction. Even after going to office hours I was unable to write functional code. The hardest part for me was figuring out the rules of writing code and how tiny mistakes like commas in the wrong place can wreak everything downstream. As the semester progressed I got better at googling examples and following code that other people wrote. At the beginning I wasn’t super good at annotating code because everything seemed self explanatory and I wasn’t sure if I was being condescending. Through reading other people’s code and peer review I realized that everyone sees code differently and that its better to over annotate than the opposite.

How has your understanding of and approach to statistics and project design changed since taking this course?

This may be in relation to previous knowledge, or in relation to future/planned work.

Since taking this course I’ve starting moving away from using Excel for all of my data analysis and graph making. With all of the built in functions and flexibility of R I am able to better analyze my data. I’ve learned a lot about how to work with small or incomplete data sets which will change how I set up my projects. I’ve learned about what statistical tests can be applied to certain data and when. The replication assignment was especially eyeopening because I could see how the authors analyzed the data but also where I would do things differently.

What did you learn from all this?

Please name at least three things you feel you learned in this course.

How to write and annotate code in a easy to follow manner.
How to keep trying at an issue and knowing when to walk away for a bit.
HTML formatting and how to insert pictures and links.

What did your learn about teamwork in this course? How did the readings on teamwork foster this understanding? How did the teamwork experiences?


I learned about ensuring that my portion of the work was done before the deadline to give ample time to others to do/receive peer review. I communicated with my HW groups so everyone knew when to expect feedback and plan around any extra time necessary. I skimmed the reading assignments and they were helpful in setting group expectations. My replication group were all very motivated to do well so we didn’t have any issues with collaboration.


How did the Peer Commentary process and Group Project relate, if at all, to what you view as your successes or difficulties in this course?


The peer review process was actually very helpful because everyone attacked the problem in a different way. Seeing other people’s attempts inspired me to look for other ways to tackle the problem. The group project was a success because we could split up the work and become an expert in our own area of the presentation. It helped lessen the workload and if one person ran into a coding issue there were other people around to troubleshoot.

What, if anything, of lasting value do you take away from this experience? If nothing, what would you do differently if you were to start over in this course?

I am taking away the work process of breaking a problem into smaller chunks and tackling each one separately. I try out a couple ways of doing a task and then pick the simplest in the end. It helps me learn to code even though I’m erasing unused code.

Taking this self-assessment into account (and with A being the highest), if you were the instructor, what grade would you give yourself given your evaluation of your own performance this semester? Please be honest.


[A]